Thanks to Jacob Wiczkowski for forwarding along this link announcing that TriMet (MAX) 101, the first light rail vehicle built for the Portland light rail system, has been moved to the Oregon Electric Railway Museum for preservation. The image above is a screen grab from the video posted on the museum's Facebook page.
Car 101 was built by Bombardier in 1983, making it the first Bombardier-built LRV in preservation. It underwent some testing in Pueblo, Colorado, in late 1983 before delivery to Portland the following year and entry into service in 1986. The Portland light rail system was the third modern system of its type to open in the US, following San Diego in 1981 and Buffalo (which was intended to be a heavy-rail subway but morphed into a hybrid light rail system when funding ran short) in 1984.
I've also added a new top-level "car type" classification to the PNAERC list. Until now, I've been classifying LRVs as rapid transit cars, but I've just created a new "light rail vehicle" classification. There are now 14 LRVs on the list, including seven San Diego U2 cars, four 1970s-era Boeing SLRVs, and three one-offs, including TriMet 101. OERHS also joins Western Railway Museum and Southern California Railway Museum as the only organizations to roster LRVs of multiple types, though WRM still leads the way with three different types of LRV (and from three different systems, no less).
Glad this LRV has been saved, but I sure hope OERHS can provide covered storage or it won't last long.
ReplyDeleteFrank,
ReplyDeleteThe Light Rail Vehicle is simply a modern name for a streetcar; they are not the Rapid Transit Cars such as you would see on the Chicago Loop. However, you might want to put the subway/surface BART cars that recently arrive at WRM as Rapid Transit cars. TM who likes the Western Railway Museum
Hi Ted, the BART cars at WRM are certainly rapid transit cars. But I would argue that while LRVs share some characteristics with streetcars, many are not that similar to streetcars, particularly those designed for high-level boarding. LRVs tend to be designed for primarily private-ROW running at speed, whereas a streetcar (including modern examples used on avowed streetcar lines in Portland and elsewhere) is intended almost exclusively for street trackage and ground-level boarding. As with streetcars/interurbans, though, it’s something of a Venn diagram, and some LRVs will tend to be more like big streetcars than others.
Delete